An exhibition of woodcuts at the Morgan Library and Museum makes a fine argument for a coarse print technique. Displaying books and pages of prints drawn almost entirely from the Morgan’s collection, Medium as Muse: Woodcuts and the Modern Book, surveys the woodcut revival that took place at the turn of the twentieth century. Artists at the time, bemoaning new, widely-used photography-based printing technology, revitalized the art of the book by bringing back the centuries-old practice of woodcut printing, or xylography, exalting a hand-made aesthetic.

A leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, designer William Morris (1834-1896) founded the Kelmscott Press in 1890, publishing limited edition leather-bound volumes. The dazzling Kelmscott Chaucer, illustrated by Morris’ frequent collaborator, Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–1898), is here. Medieval illuminated manuscripts inspired the large, ornately decorated edition of “The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer” and a 1473 copy of Giovanni Boccaccio’s (1313–1375) “De claris mulieribus,” a rare volume purchased jointly by Morris and Burne-Jones, is displayed alongside the Kelmscott Chaucer. A heavily marked up working proof by Burne-Jones shows the fine-tuning that went into illustrating this publication, a book Morris referred to as “essentially a work of art.”

Lucien Pissarro (1863–1944), the son of Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, moved to England from France and founded Eragny Press in 1894. Working with his wife Esther (1870–1951), Lucien designed over thirty books, some in English, some in French, combining pre-Raphaelite style with his Post-Impressionist roots. “The Queen of the Fishes: An Adaptation in English of a Fairy Tale of Valois,” the first Eragny Press publication, was made in color with woodblocks, perhaps the influence of the colorful Japanese ukiyo-e prints popular at that time with artists in France.

Swiss artist Félix Vallotton (1865–1925), a celebrated member of Les Nabis, collected ukiyo-e woodblock prints and his graphic work, scenes of daily life simplified into large, undulating shapes, also reflect the Japonsime influence. Exhibition curator Sheelagh Bevan says Vallotton was “France’s most original and influential modern wood engraver.” Vallotton’s self-portrait here, a woodcut of his profile, was published in L’Art et l’Idée: Revue contemporaine illustrée, a journal edited by writer and bibliophile Octave Uzanne. Bevan says Uzanne “challenged all painter-engravers to follow the Swiss artist and to respond to photography’s victory over their craft by cultivating the woodcut’s primitive qualities.”

Another highlight in this exhibition is an opera program from 1900 by opera director and designer Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966) for his production of Dido & Æneas. A fanciful sorceress and witch are described by Craig with wriggling black lines while the opera program cover is simple- a grey sheet with the opera’s title in well-designed typeface and a lone flower.

Morgan Library and Museum Director William M. Griswold sees parallels between artists working to revive the woodcut at the turn of the Twentieth century and artists today. “New technologies, which may have threatened the viability of the craft of wood engraving, ultimately inspired a range of creative responses that used the printed book’s earliest form of illustration as a means to think through the relationship between a medium and its message—an idea with continuing relevance to artists today.”

Today e-books and online media continue to change the nature of the publishing industry. This thought provoking exhibition might motivate contemporary artists to consider strategies for re-invigorating the printed page, inspiring artists and illustrators to develop images that can be easily disseminated without sacrificing the expressionistic possibilities of the hand made.

Medium as Muse: Woodcuts and the Modern Book, on view through May 11, 2014, The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 212-685-0008, www.themorgan.org

More information about Xico Greenwald’s work can be found at xicogreenwald.com